Congress created the Court of Claims in 1855 to hear monetary claims against the United States. The statute creating the court provided that its judgments would not be paid until they were reviewed and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress had appropriated the necessary funds. The Supreme Court held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear appeals from the Court of Claims because, lacking the power to enforce its judgments, the Court of Claims was not exercising the judicial power of the United States as defined by Article III of the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court was not authorized to perform non-judicial functions. The following year, Congress repealed the Secretary of the Treasury’s right to review judgments of the Court of Claims, and provided that the Supreme Court would have jurisdiction over appeals from the court. The Court announced the result in the Gordon case in March 1865, but the opinion, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney shortly before his death in October 1864, was misplaced, and was therefore not published in the U.S. Reports until 1886, when a copy was located among the papers of one of the executors of Taney's estate.
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Cases that Shaped the Federal Courts: Glidden Co. v. Zdanok (1962)